Tuesday, November 3, 2015

The Exceptional Financial Adviser: An Expert, Trustworthy, Candid Life Coach

Being a professor of finance, and chair of the Financial Planning Program at Western Kentucky University, and also serving on many professional associations over the years, has afforded me the opportunity to visit with practitioners - during conferences, at luncheons, and in their own offices. I have greatly benefitted from the insights gathered from those I meet - they serve to help me improve my own practice, as well as our university's financial planning undergraduate program.

As these conversations over many years have progressed, I have learned that financial planning, at its core, is all about assisting clients with achieving their lifetime goals. Because the accumulation of wealth is not an ends, but a means.

The exceptional financial planners I meet are:

First and foremost, experts. The body of knowledge required of a financial planner is both broad and relatively deep. A commitment to lifelong learning is absolutely essential. The best financial planners attend professional association conferences - gaining insights not just from the presenters but also from their fellow practitioners. And - they read, read, and read some more. They have good habits ... eschewing watching t.v. every evening and instead devoting time to family, friends, and their own education.

Second, trustworthy. The best financial planners realize that the allure of additional compensation, in whatever form it takes place, can distort the advice given to clients. Conflicts of interest are minimized - and avoided altogether when possible. These financial planners enjoy the expert professional-level compensation they receive, and they enjoy being on the "same side of the table" as their clients.

Third, candid with their clients. Never pulling punches. Dedicated to assisting their clients overcome obstacles, with often frank advice, even at the risk of losing the relationship. Clients don't just want to be surrounded by "yes" advisors.

Lastly, and most importantly, the exceptional financial planners focus on assisting clients to identify, further development, and work toward the attainment of lifetime goals. Financial planners are "counselors" in a sense, but from another perspective financial planners are more like "life coaches."

Life only happens once. Our clients deserve our expert guidance to empower them to suck all the marrow out of life, to live their lives with passion, to gain the rewards they themselves can receive from assisting others and expressing gratitude, and to live such a life that - near the end of life - they will have no regrets.

Being a financial planner is a gift, in and of itself. It is and can be the most enjoyable of professions. But it requires the commitment to be an expert, the intellectual honesty to maintain the client's interests as paramount at all times, and courage to be candid, and the focus on helping each and every client lead a highly successful life, in all of its many aspects.

Financial planning. A most rewarding profession.

Let us continue to progress toward that goal - a true profession.

Let us achieve, each and every one of us, the esteemed honor that flows from when a client refers to her or his financial planner as "my trusted financial advisor and life coach."

Ron's College Student Success Blog

Please visit www.blogspot.triumphincollege.com.

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Explore WKU's Nationally Renowned Financial Planning Program

The nationally recognized WKU Financial Planning Program challenges and empowers, developing students into exceptional and highly ethical professionals who go on to pursue highly successful financial advisory careers and who possess highly meaningful lives.

Led by Asst. Prof. Andrew Head, CFP® and Dr. Ron A. Rhoades, CFP®, with contributions from other WKU's Finance Department faculty, students receive a solid foundation in the very broad, yet very deep, areas of financial planning and investments. Throughout the curriculum emphasis is placed upon the acquisition of practical knowledge as well as the development of exceptional counseling, presentation, and interpersonal skills.

Check us out! Visit the WKU Finance Department web pages to learn more. For more information about our innovative program and project-based learning, please contact Dr. Rhoades or Professor Head.

About the Author

Ron A. Rhoades, JD, CFP® sailed across the Atlantic on a tall ship, performed in theme parks and road shows in Europe and America as a Disney character, rowed on a championship crew team, marched in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, marched in competition with a state-champion rifle drill team, undertook a solo one-week trip into the Everglades, escorted numerous celebrities around Central Florida, performed as a “Tin Man” at a mountaintop theme park called “The Land of Oz” in Beech Mountain, NC, and served as a stage manager and talent scheduling coordinator for entertainment productions at Walt Disney World. And then he graduated college.

Since then, Ron Rhoades earned his Juris Doctor degree, with honors, from the University of Florida College of Law, which was preceded by a B.S.B.A. from Florida Southern College. Ron Rhoades has 30 years of experience as an attorney, with nearly all of those years substantially devoted to estate planning, tax planning, and retirement plan distribution planning. Ron also has over 15 years as a personal financial adviser. He was a principal with an investment advisory firm where he served as its Director of Research and Chair of its Investment Committee.

The author of numerous articles published in financial industry publications and several books, Dr. Rhoades has been quoted in numerous consumer and trade publications, and has been interviewed on Bloomberg's "Masters in Business" radio show segment. He writes occasional articles for industry publications. Ron is a frequent speaker at local FPA chapter meetings and national conferences in the financial planning and investment advisory professions.

Ron Rhoades was the recipient of The Tamar Frankel Fiduciary of the Year Award for 2011, from The Committee for the Fiduciary Standard, as he “altered the course of the fiduciary discussion in Washington.” He was also named as one of the Top 25 Most Influential persons associated with the investment advisory profession in 2011 by Investment Advisor magazine, and was voted to the “Sweet 16 Most Influential” in Wealth Management’s 2013 “March Madness” competition. Dr. Rhoades was also named as one of the "Top 30 Most Influential" members in NAPFA's 30-year history in 2013. This blog was also called one of the "Top 25 Most Dangerous" in financial services.

Ron A. Rhoades, JD, CFP® became Program Director for the Financial Planning Program (B.S. Finance, Financial Planning Track) at Western Kentucky University's Gordon Ford School of Business in July 2015. He provides instruction to highly motivated, exceptional undergraduates students in such courses as Applied Investments, Retirement Planning, Estate Planning, and the Personal Financial Planning Capstone course. He has previously taught courses in Insurance & Risk Management, Employee Benefits, Money & Banking, Advanced Investments, and Business Law I and II.

Ron also serves on the Steering Committee of The Committee for the Fiduciary Standard, on whose behalf he frequently travels to Washington, D.C. to meet with policy makers in Congress and in government agencies regarding the application of the fiduciary standard to personalized investment advice.